Hello all, Damianista here! It’s Fan Stories day!
Many found out about Damian in Band of Brothers in early 2000s. Many more joined the fandom with Homeland. As we saw in Krista’s story last week, Damian is still gaining new fans with Billions. But then there are fans who “discovered” Damian in the least expected places.
June is one of them.
June is a published author under the name Struben Clinton and I believe you may want to read her Red Crocodile series once you read her fan story. Big thanks go to her for this unique contribution to our Fan Stories series and for the lovely pics she provided to go with the story!
I’d been writing my great romance for nearly a year but while looking for an image to help me visualize my hero I changed him a number of times, never satisfied I had the right one. Then I happened to see “Have I got News for You” and the chairman there was this red-head who seemed exactly what I was looking for.
Damianista’s Note: I am so sorry to interrupt but I am extremely happy to report that I have been able to find the November 10, 2006 HIGNFY episode in which June finally found the hero she was looking for! This is the first time Damian guest-hosted HIGNFY. He got very popular with the viewers that he has done it 5 times since. This episode, even though it is 10 years old, still feels fresh and is VERY FUNNY. Damian’s deadpan delivery is to die for. Highly recommended.
Back to June’s story:
It was the first News show he did and I had never heard of Damian Lewis but looked him up and got a couple of his early films on DVD: Friends and Crocodiles, Chromophobia, Colditz, Brides and The Forsyte Saga, and was hooked. Ever since then my hero “The Red Crocodile” has been Damian. Not Damian the person but Damian the actor. I never missed an opportunity to see him live at poetry readings in the National Theatre and of course “The Misanthrope” at the Comedy in Piccadilly which I saw 7 (seven) times bringing various friends and relations along to see it with me and wait at the stage door to see him come out and say a friendly word to the fans. He never disappointed.
I watched all the Life episodes many times but lovely though he was as Charlie he was no longer my hero.
That didn’t matter, but when Homeland came along I watched the first 6 episodes and then stopped. Too painfully alien to my way of thinking so I lost interest. I just didn’t want to see him suffer. My hero doesn’t suffer, he is in command of every situation with a lot of humour. However I have them all recorded, Billions too and may get around to watching them sometime for the sake of the brilliant acting and the personal charm. If he ever does Shakespeare at the Barbican I’ll certainly be there. And the Baker is a little gem.
Another brilliant fan story! His dry humour is brilliant for HIGNFY & I love the idea of him being a hero in a book… need to read those I think… And a big thank you for mentioning The Baker – one of my favourite films he’s done, along with The Escapist.
So glad you mention The Escapist, I think it’s a brilliant film and Damian plays the psycopath so low-key and convincingly, and yet it seems to have sunk without trace, I haven’t met anyone else who appreciates it. I’ve never seen it even on late-night TV where they show all sorts of oddments, mostly far more brutal violence than in the Escapist. One of t6he great scenes in that is when they descend into the Underground (subwey) that vast flight of steps going down is like a vision of Dante’s Inferno.
XXX June
I love this story! So unique! And yes, I will be looking up the Red Crocodile! Thank you for sharing!
What a unique fan story June! Loved reading it. And thank you Damianista for the HIGNFY video. Move over coffee…a little bit of Damian in the morning never hurt anyone. 🙂
My pleasure! I LOVED that episode. It still feels fresh after 10 years.
I love this .Thank you for sharing. The sex scene in The Baker is very funny : ))
This is such a unique story, June, thanks so much for your wonderful contribution! It is amazing that your character “Red Crocodile” is based on Damian Lewis. I really want to read the series!
I also loved reading your experience about The Misanthrophe. 7 TIMES!!!! That’s amazing. And I am not surprised at all he came out every time and chatted with fans. This is Damian. He is very graceful with his fans and genuinely grateful for the support. He’s one of the GOOD ones, for sure! <3
And, I cannot help say this: Watch Homeland! True, he suffers, but he probably gives one of the best actings, if not the best, you will have ever seen on TV. And some scenes feel like close-up theater. Amazing.
Thanks to all for your interest. A word of warning to US readers though, the Red Crocodile story’s main themes are sex and money and the language is old-fashioned Anglo-Saxon such as Chaucer or Shakespeare might have used. Damian himself uses fairly robust language so I don’t have to aplöogise to him. It’s very straight though, words used in their proper sense, no smirking or as adolescent showing-off. I had a group of about 12 friends who acted as critics chapter by chapter as I was writing, 2 left, 1 objected to ertain words but carried on with the group and all the others got used to my style and appreciated its hoesty. But then, they were all English who are by nature not prudish.
I am now more intrigued than before! Oh yeah Damian is one of the few people that uses vocabulary that I sometimes need to look up and guess what — I love it!
I am very weak when IQ and articulateness are concerned and the man is not just the best actor I have ever seen but he is smart as hell and one of the most articulate people I have ever come across. SIGH 😀
How fun! I loved reading Chaucer at university and am no stranger to the baudy bits in Shakespeare either. Let the non-puritanical English lit flag fly. Intrigued to search out your books!
And I love your fan story post! So fortunate that you were able so often to see Damian in his natural element (as he would say): The Theatre! Seeing him on stage will be a first for me in a few weeks when Damianista and I cross the pond to see The Goat. I never saw The Misanthrope, but that won’t stop me from writing a bit about it here in a couple weeks as we revisit all of Damian’s theater career leading up to The Goat. Hope you check in and let me know if my imagining of him in that role matched reality. : )